The configuration of a refrigerator mounted with a conventional door handle will be described with reference to FIG. 1. A storage space 3 is formed inside a refrigerator main body 1. The storage space 3 may be partitioned into a refrigerating chamber and a freezing chamber, which are located at upper and lower portions of the main body 1, respectively. A pair of refrigerating chamber doors 5 for selectively opening or closing the refrigerating chamber are provided at both ends of a front face of the upper portion of the main body 1, and a freezing chamber door 7 for selectively opening or closing the freezing chamber is installed at a front face of the lower portion of the main body 1.
Door handles 5′ and 7′ are installed on the refrigerating chamber doors 5 and the freezing chamber door 7, respectively. The door handles 5′ and 7′ are constructed such that handle holders 6′ and 8′ supporting both ends of each of handle bars 6 and 8 are fixed to the doors 5 and 7, respectively. The both ends of each of the handle bars 6 and 8 are inserted into and fixed to the handle holders 6′ and 8′.
The handle bars 6 and 8 may comprise main bodies 6a and 8a constituting the bodies of the handle bars 6 and 8, and decorations 6b and 8b for decorating front faces, respectively. In this case, the main bodies 6a and 8a are generally made of a metallic material such as aluminum, and the decorations 6b and 8b are generally made of a material such as plastics.
However, the conventional door handle described above has the following problems.
First, each of the handle bars 6 of the conventional door handles 5′ and 7′ is an elongated single bar. Thus, when a user grips and pulls the handle bars 6 with his/her hand, the handle bars 6 are repeatedly deformed and restored due to their elastic deformation. Thus, during use, coupling between the handle bars 6 and the handle holders 6′ and 8′ may be loosed so that the handle bars 6 come off or are shaken, which may cause a problem of inconvenience to the user.
In addition, since the main bodies 6a and 8a and the decorations 6b and 8b of the handle bars 6 are made of different materials, i.e., metal and plastics, they have different coefficients of thermal expansion. Thus, the main bodies 6a and 8a and the decorations 6b and 8b are expanded or contracted at different rates according to changes in indoor temperature, which may cause separation between them. Particularly, in a case where the handle bars 6 are assembled at a low temperature and used at a high temperature, the main bodies 6a and 8a made of a metallic material sensitive to thermal changes are expanded longer. Therefore, the main bodies 6a and 8a raise the handle holders 6′ and 8′, thereby causing a problem in that the decorations 6b and 8b relatively insensitive to thermal changes are separated or shaken.
In addition, since the handle bars 6 and 8 in the prior art are constructed such that the decorations 6b and 8b are simply mounted on the main bodies 6a and 8a, there is a problem in that it is not possible to meet desires of users who want a variety of designs.
The handle bars 6 and 8 in the prior art function only as parts that are gripped and pulled by a user to open or close the doors 5 and 7. However, since the user cannot see the handle bars 6 and 8 when intending to open or close the doors of the refrigerator in a dark state, for example at night, the user should turn on an additional lamp and then grip the handle bars 6 and 8 to open or close the doors 5 and 7.